My names are Mary Kabura Mwangi. I am the last born in a family of 6 siblings. I was brought up in a remote town here in Kenya where people engage in farming as their income generating activity. The town is called Magina, near the Equator line. Due to its proximity with the Equator it is naturally very cold. It was 'hell' to me as a young child going to school barefoot in that freezing cold.

My parents were peasant farmers and they used to fund my education with the proceeds from our rented piece of land. The land was small and so was the profits from the farm. The small proceeds would be used to pay for every of our siblings and this made it obvious that some of us would sometimes miss school due to lack of school fees.

I was among the biggest casualty of this since I was the youngest of them all. I struggled through school and I would sometimes stay at home for a whole term without entering a class. This didn't auger well with my education and so after finishing my primary school education I didn't qualify to proceed to a college.

This prompted me to search for employment in the nearby city. City life was such a challenge to me. After some time, I started copping with life. Changing jobs in search for greener pastures was also helpful in my city life coping. The salary from these jobs was meager and could only survive on it - that is paying for rent of a shared house, food and some clothing. It was not possible to do some savings.

However, the little I did was helpful and managed to live decently. I later got married and that is when I finally was able to start a business with the help of my husband.

We live in a maasai land here in Kenya together with my husband and our little daughter. The maasai are an interesting community. They still live in traditional clothers. The town is however a cosmopolitan city in that many communities have migrated to live here.

I like travelling in my free time - holidays, spending time with my young family.

I deal with selling of second hand clothes. These are bed-sheets, carpets, curtains, bed-covers and such. It is such an interesting job since the clothes are inexpensive and so very affordable to my clients. They like them because they are unique. My clientele are ladies. Ladies are a funny lot. One will feel good when they buy things that are unique.

This gives me an added advantage to my competitors who do new clothes. New clothes are not unique and one will easily find the same type of say curtains in their friends houses.

I chose this kind of business because the starting capital was not much. We buy in bales whereby a bale's cost ranges from 130 US dollars to 330 US dollars. I started with 130 US dollars and with time I have been going up capital wise.

The only expenses in my business is paying up of rent to my shop. I have not employed anyone since my shop is still not that big. The rent is about 80 US dollars a month. My current profits a month is about 200 US dollars. This helps in a great way to supplement my husband's business in our monthly expenditures.

My daughter is approaching 3 years now and she will start school by the beginning of next year in January. My small business will help in a great way to cater for her school. I would wish to educate her without lack of school fees. This motivates me a lot.

I am here again to apply for some yet additional funds to restock my clothing business. I am in need of having some different types of products to give my shop an even newer look. I am currently dealing with carpet marts, bed sheets and towels and I am getting demands from clients to stock baby blankets. The weather is still cold and I bet the blankets will come in handy to clients with young kids. With a wide variety of items, I will enjoy the confidence of clients who come in to shop and getting what they anticipate to get in my small shop.

The baby blankets are sold in bales which costs US $ 140 per bale. I need to buy two bales which will have a total cost of $ 280. I have managed to save some of it - about US $ 100. I need some extra $ 190 to realize my target.

This I anticipate will increase my sales volumes even further to enable me realize my profit target which I am expecting to clock US $300 per month by the end of the year.